Financial Details of Government Bodies to be Uploaded on Web

Times of India

March 09, 2013

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NEW DELHI: Reeling under a spate of corruption scandals, the Congress-led UPA has moved to give a perception of transparency in governance by making it mandatory for all ministries and departments to divulge on official websites details of financial decisions, procurement expenditure and beneficiaries of grants-in-aid.

The department of personnel and training (DoPT) will issue guidelines making it mandatory for all government departments, ministries and autonomous bodies to regularly disclose and update information on their websites in a particular format.

The information which would need to be uploaded on the website would include beneficiaries of grants-in-aid, utilization of discretionary funds, Budget allocation and expenditure under different heads of the department, expenditure on foreign and domestic tours and names of sponsors. The guidelines would also specify a format in which this information will be available to the common man. This is aimed at a unified format in all government departments so that a person knows where to access the information.

At present, Section 4 of the Right to Information Act specifies a mechanism for voluntary disclosure of information. However, there is no uniformity in format. Even the information which is provided is very administrative in nature. Section 4 (1) (b) identifies 16 types of information that has to be divulged by a government department.

These heads include particulars of organization, powers of officers, manuals, rules and records, categories of documents held by it, directory of officials, particulars of recipients of concessions and manner of execution of subsidy programmes. All ministries are required to reduce records held by them in an electronic form and declassify documents regularly, but the provision is not followed uniformly.

A senior official, who did not wish to be named, told ET, "The guidelines have been sent for an approval from the Prime Minister's Office. They are likely to be issued this month." The Government has been aware of addressing the issue of transparency in governance over the last two years. DoPT had constituted a task force, also comprising RTI activists and subject experts.

The report was tabled before the committee of secretaries and draft guidelines were finally prepared. According to sources, there is an added emphasis on making all decisions, especially related to discretionary powers, public.

The idea of voluntary disclosures has also been supported by the CIC, the final appellate authority for RTI Act.